The stretch begins Friday night at Gampel Pavilion, site of the home opener against California.

The next game tips off about 42 hours later at the XL Center in Hartford, where UConn will face Maryland. Hours after that game ends, the team will board a flight bound for Los Angeles.

On Tuesday night, the Huskies will step onto the floor at Pauley Pavilion to face UCLA.

Three games in five days, spanning about 3,000 miles, from Eastern Connecticut to Southern California.

How does the coaching and training staff keep a group of elite college athletes physically and mentally prepared for three ranked opponents over such a condensed stretch of time? It’s all about not drawing attention to what’s ahead.

“We try to keep things consistent,” said Amanda Kimball, UConn’s sports performance coach. “This stretch for the girls shouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Most of the kids are used to this. This is our November schedule. This is the kind of schedule that we have.”

UConn opens its home slate against No. 20 California Friday before facing No. 15 Maryland and No. 8 UCLA. And the game in Los Angeles is the start of a weeklong trip on the West Coast that includes a matchup with Michigan State in Eugene, Ore., Nov. 25 and a game at Nevada-Reno Nov. 28.

The team will be in Oregon for Thanksgiving. They will be practicing and training at sites on the road, preparing for games as if it were just another week on the schedule.

That’s the approach of the coaching staff and it’s how Kimball manages the players.

“Not making a big deal of it,” Kimball said. “Not ringing the alarm.”

The visit to Los Angeles is a homecoming game for Katie Lou Samuelson, who grew up in nearby Orange County. The game in Reno is a homecoming for Gabby Williams, a native of nearby Sparks, Nev.

But the trip to Eugene is a Nike obligation, part of the PK-80 Phil Knight Invitational that celebrates the 80th birthday of Nike’s co-founder. With UConn playing in Oregon Saturday, the UCLA game landed earlier in the week, resulting in three games in five days.

“Not ideal,” Geno Auriemma said. “Not exactly what we wanted. We wanted it to be a little more spread out, obviously. … But it’s early in the season and we have to figure out a way to manage it. It’s a good test for our guys. It really is … three ranked teams, three pretty good teams.”

Facing California and Maryland over a span of three days is somewhat daunting, but the players will be at home and in familiar surroundings. The flight to Los Angeles will pose a challenge, as the team will take a commercial flight with two legs.

The team will practice Monday after the long flight and will be playing the next day against one of the better teams in the country.

“There is no easy way, really,” Auriemma said. “Ideally, you get out there, have a couple days to settle in, and then you play. But we get there Monday, we practice Monday afternoon, and we play Tuesday night. So, I don’t know. I’m sure there will be some side effects, I just don’t know what they’re going to be.”

The UConn women's basketball team has practiced the past two days as it points for the home opener against California.

The UConn women's basketball team has practiced the past two days as it points for the home opener against California.

Samuelson and Williams have experience playing basketball after cross-country flights. There are both physical and mental demands associated with what the team is facing over the next few days.

“Physically, I think we’re expecting to be tired,” Williams said. “We know it’s going to be hard, so it’s going to be a good challenge for us mentally. We’re going to have to compensate mentally. We don’t have a choice. So it’s a bit of both.”

Samuelson’s advice to her teammates as they travel Sunday night: “Try to sleep on the plane.”

She also points out that traveling east-to-west is less taxing than the other way around.

“It’s easier to go there because the time difference is better,” Samuelson said. “When you come back here and then you’ve got to wake up at 7 and it’s 4 a.m., that’s the worst. So that’ll be OK.”

Kimball said she will have the players move around during the flight.

“We’ve got some recovery stuff,” she said. “A lot of massages going on, too, so they can get their legs moving and they feel nice and light. That’s the one thing about flying. You get off the place and you just feel tired.”

She will remind the players to stay hydrated. She will encourage rest and will monitor how each athlete responds to the schedule and travel.

But she’s not concerned.

“They’re pretty resilient,” Kimball said.

When UConn returns from Reno Nov. 29, the team will be coming off a stretch of five games in 12 days. Samuelson recently pointed this out to Kimball.

Kimball’s response: “Yeah, we’ve done it before, Lou. … I told her, we take care of business, it’s going to be a great trip.”

And along the way, Samuelson and Williams will be home while the players have an opportunity to see a different part of the country. The potential for distractions is there, but Kimball said homecoming trips are “good distractions.”

“It’s definitely going to be fun,” Samuelson said. “It’s fun to play different teams and we’re playing good opponents, too, so it’s easier to get really excited for those games. I’m really excited to go out to California and get the chance to play UCLA.”

Forward Batouly Camara remains sidelined as she recovers from a right knee injury. Camara suffered a bone bruise last month and is just resuming basketball activities. Her estimated return is about two or three weeks away. “I just started working out in practice, doing some half-court stuff and cutting, and it feels a lot better,” Camara said. “There’s no projection timeline but I would say probably within the next two or three weeks. But it does feel a lot better.” … The Huskies took two days off after Sunday’s win over Stanford, resuming practice Wednesday. “We’ve had two pretty good days,” Auriemma. “We played pretty good with a couple bad days of practice against Stanford. Now we have a couple of good days of practice. We’ll see what that does for us.”